Graham
Rahal
Alison Hill
ID PR & Marketing
Tel: +44 (0)7710 306588
Email: Alison@grahamrahal.com
Please
check-out Graham's Website
http://grahamrahal.com
GRAHAM RAHAL
READY FOR FINAL SHOWDOWN AT ROAD AMERICA ATLANTICS RACE
Columbus, Ohio - Wednesday, September 20, 2006
By: Alison Hill
ID PR & Marketing
The final race of
the Champ Car Atlantics Championship this weekend will be the championship
decider and Graham Rahal, lying second, is ready for the duel to the checkered
flag.
It’s been nearly four weeks since the last race in the
Series at Montreal, where Rahal took victory to close the gap on championship
leader, Simon Pagenaud. With 12 points separating the two young racers, it’s
set to be a tense battle for the $2 million Champ Car ride prize.
The Atlantic series may have had a four week break, but for
Rahal it’s been a hectic schedule of testing, including a two-day session in
the Newman-Haas prepared Champ Car, and another two days in an A1GP car at
Silverstone in the UK, as well as laps with his Conquest Racing Atlantics team
and he’s also managed to fit in four days of school.
The championship decider takes place at Road America, a
track which holds a special place in Rahal’s heart, as he says, “I guess
this is my second home track after Cleveland, but there’s lots of connections
with it. It was my dad’s favorite track and it’s also where my
grandfather’s career started.”
Rahal has given an impressive performance in the Atlantic
series in his first season, at only 17 years of age. He’s taken five victories
and four pole positions so far, but is keen to add to his tally by the final checkered
flag.
“I have nothing to lose this weekend, but everything to
gain,” says Rahal. “I’ve secured second spot in the Championship, so the
only way is up. Ideally I need to take the bonus points available for
taking pole on Friday and Saturday, then stay at the front to add a point for
leading, and winning, the race. Throwing in fastest lap will give me another
point, then it’s just good or bad fortune, as to whether my title rival,
Simon, finishes higher than fourth. If he does, I will have done all I can and
can do nothing more than accept second. But, of course, I’ll be hoping that
it’s not that way at the end. We’ll just have to wait and see.”
Rahal raced at Road America last season in the Star Mazda
series and also in the previous year in Formula BMW, so he is familiar with the
track and hopes that this will give him a competitive advantage next weekend.
He says, “I think the pressure is on Simon now. We’ve
fought back hard in the last few races and eroded his lead as the races have
counted down. The track is one that I love and I think that will really help in
this pursuit for the ultimate reward. I don’t think it will be easy though.
Simon is a tough competitor and a good driver. I’m expecting the battle to be
closely fought; I just want to be the victor.”
The Champ Car Atlantics Championship race at Road America in
Wisconsin starts with practice on Friday and the race starts at 11.30am ET on
Sunday 24 September.
Rahal Posts
Another Top-Five Finish In Star Mazda Race at Mosport
New Albany, Ohio - Tuesday,
September 6, 2005
By:
Linda
Mansfield
Restart Communications
www.restartcommunications.com
E-mail: LindaKMansfield@cs.com
Sixteen-year-old
racing sensation Graham Rahal of New Albany, Ohio posted yet another top-five
finish in Star Mazda competition in his rookie season when he finished fifth in
that series' race on Saturday at Mosport International Raceway in Bowmanville,
Ontario, Canada.
Rahal qualified sixth in his yellow No. 12, which is
sponsored by The Bobby Rahal Automotive Group, Bosch, Renier Construction and
Norwalk Furniture. He ran in seventh until lap 17 when he passed Marco
Andretti, and he got fifth with five laps to go by passing one of his Andersen
Walko Racing teammates, Pablo Donoso.
"I kind of had a bad start, and Pablo got around
me," Rahal explained afterwards. "Then I went down out of turn
three and [Raphael] Matos pulled me into the grass, and that let Andretti get by
us both.
"Then I was just trying to make my way back up," he
said. "I got Andretti going into three. I got a good run on him and
just passed him. Then I caught Pablo and snuck by him on the
backstraightaway."
Rahal was generally pleased with how his car ran. "The
car was pretty good," he said. "We're struggling with a few
things. We don't quite have the straightaway speed we need, but
other than that it was pretty good. We need to find some things, but we'll
get there."
Rahal was never out of the top 10 in any of the preliminary
sessions, and he was third in one of them with an average speed of 115.868 mph
(1:16.401) around the 2.49-mile road course. He qualified with a 1:15.582
(117.123 mph). His fastest lap in the race on Saturday was a 1:16.441.
A total of 31 drivers competed in the event, which was
presented by Goodyear and was a support event for the Labour Day Grand Prix of
Mosport American Le Mans Series headliner.
Rahal is fourth in the national point standings of the Star
Mazda series. Only two races remain this season. They will be held at Road
Atlanta Sept. 28-30 (part of the Petit Le Mans) and Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in
Monterey, Calif. Oct. 13-15.
Earlier this year Rahal became the youngest driver in the
history of the Star Mazda series to win a national event. His victory at
Portland International Raceway will be telecast at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 18 on
SPEED. The race at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis. is scheduled to be
shown on the same network at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 2. Saturday's race at
Mosport is scheduled to air on Sunday, Oct. 28 at noon on SPEED. All times are
Eastern.
Rahal has also earned an invitation to the Super Bowl of
amateur sports car racing, the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) National
Championship Runoffs presented by Kohler, which will be held on the 2.4-mile,
15-turn Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio Sept. 19 through Sept. 25.
Rahal is one of 27 drivers entered in the national
championship for the Formula Atlantic division at the Runoffs, an event that
features over 700 drivers competing in 24 different classes. He'll drive a 2003
Swift 014, No. 3.
Qualifying for the Formula Atlantic class is scheduled to be
held at 10:15 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 20; at 8:25 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 21;
and at 10:50 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 22. The winner-take-all
20-lap/40-minute Formula Atlantic championship race will be the last event of
the day on Friday, Sept. 23 at approximately 5:10 p.m.
In the September issue of Sports Car magazine the editors
picked Rahal to win, noting "he seems to improve with every race and
impresses all who observe his progress."
His father won two national championship at the Runoffs in
his formative years (1974 in B Sports Racer and 1975 in his first Formula
Atlantic drive for Doug Shierson). This is the last year that the Runoffs will
be held in Rahal's home state of Ohio, as the event moves to Heartland Park
Topeka in Kansas beginning in 2006.
All that hasn't been lost on the teen, but he's being very
mature about any pressure he might feel.
"It's nice to be picked to win, but it's one of those
things where you have to go in hoping to win but not thinking you're going to,
because then something will happen and you won't," he said. "That's
just the way it works.
"I think we have a good chance though," he added.
"With the resources we have, we should win, but I'm not saying that just
because I'm the driver. We have Burke Harrison, probably the best Atlantic
engineer in the world, working with us. He's extremely good.
"I know Mid-Ohio; we won a national race there by 20
seconds over Ben Beasley, who is always good. We have to go in there
hoping for the best but not get cocky or overwhelmed. This is really only
my third race at Mid-Ohio."
Still, a national championship would be wonderful.
"Everybody understands that winning the Runoffs is a
huge deal, so that's what I'm trying to do," Rahal noted. "Dad
won it; there is a long line of history there. Unfortunately I lost the
Central Division points by one point, but I only did four races and the other
guys did all of them. That's frustrating, but I gave up the June Sprints to run
the Mazda.
"We just need to keep our heads down and really go for
it."
That race is scheduled to be broadcast on SPEED on Sunday,
Nov. 27 at 2 p.m. Eastern time.
Rahal's Web site is located at grahamrahal.com, while his
sponsor's Web site is at bobbyrahal.com. His Star Mazda team's Web site is
at andersenwalko.com.
Other interesting information can be found at starmazda.com,
americanlemans.com, scca.com and restartcommunications.com.